1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a garnish as an air bag cover which is disposed on an inner side of a pillar portion of a vehicle to be pushed to open by an air bag when the air bag is inflated so as to allow the air bag being inflated to project.
2. Related Art
In a conventional head protection air bag system, a garnish which doubled as an air bag cover was disposed on a side of a pillar portion which lies to face a vehicle interior side (for example, refer to JP-A-2006-176089). This garnish was configured so as to include a garnish body and a clip for mounting the garnish body on an inner panel on a vehicle body. The garnish body was disposed to cover a folded air bag, the clip was assembled to an assembling eye provided on a rear surface side of the garnish body, and an assembling hole, which was opened in a rectangular shape for assembling the clip to the assembling eye therethrough, was formed in the assembling eye. In addition, this clip was configured so as to include a mounting portion which was provided on a clip main body so as to be mounted in a mounting hole in the vehicle body, an initial locking portion which was inserted into the assembling eye by way of the assembling hole so as to be locked detachably on a circumferential edge of the assembling hole in the assembling eye, and an anchor portion with a fluke portion provided at a distal end thereof which extends from the initial locking portion into the assembling eye for locking the circumferential edge of the assembling hole so that the circumferential edge cannot be dislocated from the clip when the circumferential edge of the assembling hole is detached from the initial locking portion while keeping the mounting portion of the clip mounted on the vehicle body.
In this garnish, when the air bag was inflated, being pushed by the air bag being inflated, the circumferential edge of the assembling hole was detached from the initial locking portion, and the circumferential edge of the assembling hole was locked on the anchor portion of the clip. Because of this, the circumferential edge of the assembling hole in the assembling eye shifted from the initial locking portion to the fluke portion of the anchor portion relative to the clip which mounted the mounting portion on the vehicle body, whereby since the garnish body formed an air bag projecting space between the vehicle body and the garnish which corresponds to the amount by which the circumferential edge of the assembling hole had so shifted, the air bag was allowed to be deployed and inflated into the vehicle interior side through the projecting space so formed.
In addition, there was another type of garnish in which a garnish body was locked on a body side with a clip having no anchor portion, and a separate flexible strap was connected and fixed to the vehicle body while being connected to the garnish body so as to prevent the garnish body from being detached from the vehicle body (for example, refer to JP-A-2001-039260). In this garnish, even in the event that when an air bag was inflated, the clip was detached from the vehicle body to allow the garnish body to shift so as to form an air bag projecting space, the flexible strap prevented the detachment of the garnish body from the vehicle body.
In the related-art garnish, however, when disposing the clip with the anchor portion in the assembling eye, the fluke portion was inserted into the assembling hole to match longer sides of the rectangular opening of the assembling hole, and thereafter, the fluke portion was rotated through 90° so as to extend between the longer sides of the rectangular opening of the assembling hole to thereby prevent dislocation of the fluke portion from the assembling hole, whereby the initial locking portion was locked in the assembling hole. Thus, some labor hours were required for assemblage of the clip into the assembling eye, and the number of man hours involved in manufacturing the garnish itself was increased. In addition, as to the clip itself, the anchor portion with the fluke portion provided at the distal end thereof had to be formed, which involved much manufacturing cost, and hence, the manufacturing cost of the clip constituted one of main factors which increased the manufacturing cost of the whole garnish.
In addition, in the garnish employing the strap, in addition to locking the clip on the vehicle body, since the strap, which was provided separately from the garnish body, was necessary not only to be connected to the garnish body but also to be connected and fixed to the vehicle body, some labor hours had to be involved not only in manufacturing the garnish itself but also in mounting the garnish on the vehicle body.